Saturday, September 06, 2008

The CAGE

It's Friday night, and the guys over at Falcon had invited me to join them for a game of football over at The Cage with the entire crew and some other friends. I have heard them talked about their first outing there, and did not pay much attention to their stories.

It has been more than 3 years since I last exercised, due to the hours I have to put in for my new job (I still had time for a jog once a week with my colleague in my previous job). But I thought, how tough could it get, kicking a ball around a building, with rotating teams.

Anyway, all geared up, I managed to leave the office at 7:30pm, and headed to Waterloo to meet up with the guys. We left at 8pm. Once we got there, I changed and we waited for 9pm, which is the start of the booking.

My first injury came, even before we started playing. I was doing some warm up stretches, and managed to pull my thigh muscle. With the pain still there, I continued to go into the "cage" and did some warm up kicks. The pain later subsided.

We sorted out who belonged to which team, and started the match. While chasing the ball, I somehow tripped myself (heard of butter legs ?), fell and rolled over once or twice, bruising my elbow in the process. Zinc was asking me later what the heck was I doing. I was asking myself the same question, and I have not even tackled or touched the football yet ! 5mins into the game, and only ran some distance, I had the wind knocked out of me. I was literally breathless, so I volunteered to be the goalkeeper.

As the game progressed, I managed to get into the rhythm of the game. Later in another set, I managed to save a ball, but that cost me a bad bruise on the knee. The ground feels like it is made of rock particles. And the final set, while trying to save an incoming shot, I used my hands (instinctively) to block the shot, and that cost me a real bad and nasty sprain to my right index finger. I was in quite a lot of pain, and told the guys to switch places with me. I later had a death wish as I unwittingly charged at Simon, thinking that I can take on someone who is like 3-4 times larger than me. Stupid.

All in all, I had great fun with the guys and gals and even kids !

Later that whole week, I was so sore in my thighs, body and finger, I felt so handicapped, that I had a better appreciation for all those handicap friendly facilities that are put in buses and buildings. Oh, and I think I better have that finger checked out by a doctor too. Also thanks to all those who showed concern about my injuries. :)